Photos space now

You need to be planning the gut renovation here. Piecemeal in reverse is completely the wrong order of operations. Keeping old poor quality cabinets just because you put expensive stone on top is a poor use of funds.

Hire a Kitchen Designer for a couple of hours of a basic consult. You don’t know what you don’t know here. Once you get more knowledge, and a plan of attack, then you can move forward.

The first question is whether you are essentially happy with the layout of the kitchen and most importantly are your cabinets in good shape? If your cabinets are in good shape, then you are essentially just wanting to do a "cosmetic" refresh of your kitchen.

It never hurts to hire a kitchen designer who will give you ideas on how to proceed.

Dishwashers are replaced all the time and don't require a GC. When I replaced my dishwasher, I had the store install it and remove the old dishwasher

Similarly counters are often replaced by homeowners as a separate thing. Depending on where you are located, you go to a stone yard; go to a very reputable store that specializes in counters. You do research on what surface you want and then look at slabs and samples. Depending on which way you go, you hire a fabricator or you have a fabricator and then you select the counter. Either way, seek advice in terms of making a selection as well as supervising the template for the counter so there are no unpleasant surprises.

I did a gut remodel which included adding a hood. Although I had a GC, the duct work was handled by an HVAC company.

In terms of the cabinets and millwork, my friend had this kind of adjustments made to her cabinets and hired a local woodworking company to do it and was pleased with the results.

I would highly suggest a consult with a kitchen designer. If you are in Memphis, as your name suggests, you should use mine. I‘ve used her for two kitchens, a powder room, and we are working on a master bath together right now. Contact me if you want the referral.

Not In Memphis anymore in Sacramento. I do want a refresh as the cabinets are in great shape. The range and refrigerator are new. The sink, dishwasher and counters are all old. heavily chipped and dingy. I want ventilation because I don’t really use my burners for cooking as the microwave is a poor venting and none outside.

We rip out old partial overlay homeowner badly painted cabinets like that every week. Don’t waste money on them. You need a different layout, and taller cabinets both. Lots of possible improvements, once you start down that road. Leave them alone until the whole can get done.

"Or should I bit the bullet get it all done because having one person overseeing everything will ultimately save me headaches and let money?"

Yes. Trades must be coordinated. You could find out your dishwasher can't be replaced without tearing out your new floor or countertop. Neither contractor did anything wrong, but someone wasn't thinking comprehensively.

The issue - at least in my area - is that you are not going to be able to find a competent GC who is interested in doing this small a job - there simply isn't enough profit for him because he and his trusted crew are doing larger more profitable jobs.

The only aspect of the project that is a bit problematic is the carpentry work because finding a competent carpenter is harder. Most people have dishwashers, counters and even hoods/duct replaced or repaired on their own without any issues because it is easy to find skilled workers whose business model is to take on those types of jobs.

I am having my balcony tiled and the ONLY reason my GC was willing to handle it is because he is still technically finishing punch up on my gut remodel - and he also likes me a lot because I didn't drive him crazy when he was remodeling. Even still I had to wait 6 weeks for the work to start from the time I told him that I was fine with the estimate. The tiles themselves have been here since the pandemic started :-). If I didn't have the relationship with the GC, I would have just found a tile setter through recommendations.

You are not thinking comprehensively. You should be planning the full renovation for next year. Gutting you the studs and starting over. The layout isn’t good, and the age of the cabinets says they aren’t worth spending money to do anything with.

Almost everything you listed was part of my own recent kitchen renovation. The key to keeping costs down is to really sit down and do your homework to gather estimates for pricing on every single item down to the new kitchen faucet and particularly the labor for things you cannot do yourself and then step back and assign a limit to each item that will achieve your desired budget. You will probably find that you cannot do what you thought for the price you wanted. By looking at the whole picture before any purchases have been made, you will know where you need to economize and whether it is even the right time to remodel. Wood prices are really high right now, and you could save a significant amount by waiting until the market corrects post-pandemic to get started.